The%20Middle%20Ages

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The Middle AgesMyth and Reality
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The Middle Ages The Myth

• We think of knights in shining armor, lavish
  banquets, wandering minstrels, kings, queens,
  bishops, monks, pilgrims, and glorious pageantry.
  
• In film and in literature, medieval life heroic,
  entertaining romantic.

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The Middle Ages The Reality

• In reality, life in the Middle Ages, a period
  that extended from the 5th century to the 15th
  century in Western Europe.
• Life could be harsh, uncertain, and dangerous.
• Started around 500 AD, when the Roman Empire fell
  to invading Muslim armies.

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Why call it the Middle Ages (or Dark Ages)?

• This time period consisted of a dark moment in
  the arts there was no to minimal flourishment
  with visual art, drama, dance, and music.
• The reasoning behind this was due to the fact
  that the Roman Catholic Church had control over
  the arts to go against them could result in
  Excommunication or death.

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The Power of the ChurchWhy was the church so
powerful?

• 1. It owned land. The church owned many large
  areas of farmland. People who grew crops on this
  land had to give 1/10 of everything they grew to
  the church. This was called a tithe. This was a
  lot of crops for many poor people to lose.
• 2. It controlled peoples beliefs. The church
  told people that when they died, their souls
  lived on forever, either in Heaven or in Hell.
  Hell great pain and suffering Heaven
  wonderful beyond imagination Purgatory in
  between they would stay until any sins had been
  burnt away.

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The Power of the Church

• 3. It was rich. Many tried to buy their way
  into heaven, because the church said that you
  could shorten your stay in Purgatory by doing
  several things Attend church and live a good
  life go on a pilgrimage buy a special pardon.
  These pardons were also known as indulgences.
• 4. It was not controlled by the King. Church
  Roman Catholic and led by the Pope. King could
  not tell anyone from the church what to do. If
  any crimes were committed, could not be tried in
  normal court worst punishment Excommunication
  banishment from the church.

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The Lord of the Manor

• For safety and defense, people in the Middle
  Ages formed small communities around a central
  lord or master.

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The Manor

• Most people lived on a manor, it consisted of the
  castle (or manor house), the church, the village,
  and surrounding farm land.

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Self-Sufficiency

• Each manor was self-sufficient, producing all of
  the basic items food, clothing, and shelter.
• The manor had buildings devoted to special
  purposes, such as
• The mill for grinding grain
• The bake house for making bread
• The blacksmith shop for creating metal goods.

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Isolation

• Manors were isolated, with occasional visits from
  peddlers, pilgrims on their way to the Crusades,
  or soldiers from other fiefdoms.

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The Feudal System

• Under the feudal system, kings awarded land
  grants or fiefs to nobles, barons, and bishops,
  in return for contribution of soldiers for the
  king's armies.

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Nobles and Vassals

• Nobles divided their land among the lesser
  nobility vassals. Many vassals became so
  powerful that the kings had difficulty
  controlling them.

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The Magna Carta

• In 1215, the English barons formed an alliance
  that forced King John to sign the Magna Carta. It
  limited the king's powers of taxation and
  required trials by jury. It was the first time
  that an English monarch was subject to the
  (common)law.

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The Peasants

• At the lowest level of society were the peasants,
  also called serfs.
• The lord offered his peasants protection in
  exchange for living and working on his land.

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Hard Work High Taxes

• Peasants worked hard to cultivate the land and
  produce the goods that the lord and his manor
  needed.
• They were heavily taxed and were required to
  relinquish much of what they harvested.

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Bound by law and custom

• It is the custom in England, as with other
  countries, for the nobility to have great power
  over the common people, who are serfs. --
  Jean Froissart, 1395 

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Interesting Fact
Under Medieval law, animals could be tried and
sentenced for crimes, just as though they were
people. There are records of farm animals being
tried for injuring or killing people. Animals
were charged with smaller crimes, too. Some mice
were taken to court for stealing part of the
harvest, and, in another case, a flock of locusts
was convicted --in absentia--of eating crops
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Interesting Fact
What kind of meal was "fit for a king"? King
Richard II of England sometimes gave feasts for
as many as 10,000 people at once. One of these
required 140 hogs, 14 oxen, 12 calves, 12 boars
and 3 tons of salted venison.
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Women Household Chores

• Whether they were nobles or peasants, women held
  a difficult position in society.
• They were largely confined to household tasks
  cooking, baking bread, sewing, weaving, and
  spinning.

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Hunting Fighting

• They also hunted for food and fought in battles,
  learning to use weapons to defend their homes and
  castles/manors.

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Other Occupations

• Some medieval women held other occupations. They
  wereblacksmiths, merchants, and apothecaries.

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Midwives, Farmers, Artists

• Others were midwives, worked in the fields, or
  engaged in creative endeavors writing, playing
  musical instruments, dancing, and painting.
• Wet Nurse

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Witches Nuns

• Some women were known as witches, capable of
  sorcery and healing. Others became nuns and
  devoted their lives to God and spiritual matters.

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The Catholic Church

• The Catholic Church was the only church in Europe
  during the Middle Ages, It had its own laws and
  great wealth.
• Church leaders bishops and archbishops sat on
  the king's council and played leading roles in
  government.

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Bishops

• Bishops, who were often wealthy and came from
  noble families, ruled over groups of parishes
  called dioceses.
• They were part of the feudal system and in
  exchange for a fief and peasants had to provide
  homage and military aid to a King/ Lord.

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Parish Priests

• Parish priests, on the other hand, came from
  humbler backgrounds and often had little
  education.
• The village priest tended to the sick and
  indigent and, if he was able, taught Latin and
  the Bible.

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Priests

• Three different orders Jesuits, Dominicans,
  Franciscans
• When scrolls were translated, they were divided
  into 1/3s among the Jesuits, Dominicans,
  Franciscans

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Monasteries

• Monasteries in the Middle Ages were based on the
  rules set down by St. Benedict in the 6th
  century. The monks were known as Benedictines and
  took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

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Monks

• Monks performed manual labor were forbidden to
  own land, leave the monastery, or become
  entangled in the concerns of society (Lived a
  monastic life)
• Daily tasks were carried out in silence.

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Nuns

• The female counterparts nuns lived in convents,
  and provided for the less-fortunate members of
  the community. Monasteries and nunneries were
  safe havens for pilgrims and other travelers.

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Monastic Life

• Monks and nuns went to the monastery chapel
  church 8 times for Mass. The sang, chanted, and
  recited prayers.
• Its sole purpose was to get closer to God, to
  live spiritually 24/7.

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The Divine Office

• The first office, Matins, began at 2 AM and the
  next seven followed at regular intervals,
  culminating in Vespers (sunset evening prayers)
  in the evening and Compline (Prayers at the end
  of the day final night service) before the
  monks and nuns retired at night.

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Education

• Between prayers, the monks read or copied
  religious texts and music. Monks were often well
  educated and devoted their lives to writing and
  learning.

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Pilgrimages

• Pilgrimages were an important part of religious
  life in the Middle Ages. Many people took
  journeys to visit holy shrines such the
  Canterbury Cathedral in England and sites in
  Jerusalem and Rome.

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The Canterbury Tales

• Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is a series of stories
  told by 30 pilgrims as they traveled to the
  Cathedral of Canterbury.

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The Canterbury Tales

• The Canterbury Tales is a snapshot of Medieveal
  life.
• It gives a description of how people lived during
  the Middle Ages.

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The Canterbury Tales

• Chaucer places the 29 characters on a pilgrimage
  to the shrine of the martyr Saint Thomas a
  Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. They are from
  many stages of life they have traveled on
  horseback from London.
• A pilgrimage is a religious journey made to a
  shrine or holy place. Most people during the
  Middle Ages took at least one pilgrimage

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Town Life

• After 1000, peace and order grew. As a result,
  peasants began to expand their farms and villages
  further into the countryside. The earliest
  merchants were peddlers who went from village to
  village selling their goods.

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Peddlers

• As the demand for goods increased--particularly
  for the gems, silks, and other luxuries from
  Genoa and Venice, the ports of Italy that traded
  with the East--the peddlers became more familiar
  with complex issues of trade, commerce,
  accounting, and contracts.

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Businessmen

• They became savvy businessmen and learned to deal
  with Italian moneylenders and bankers. The
  English, Belgians, Germans, and Dutch took their
  coal, timber, wood, iron, copper, and lead to the
  south and came back with luxury items such as
  wine and olive oil.

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Tradesmen

• With the advent of trade and commerce, feudal
  life declined. As the tradesmen became wealthier,
  they resented having to give their profits to
  their lords.

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Boroughs

• Arrangements were made for the townspeople to pay
  a fixed annual sum to the lord or king and gain
  independence for their town as a "borough" with
  the power to govern itself. The marketplace
  became the focus of many towns.

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Town Governments

• As the townspeople became "free" citizens,
  powerful families, particularly in Italy,
  struggled to gain control of the communes or
  boroughs. Town councils were formed.

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Guilds

• Guilds were established to gain higher wages for
  their members and protect them from competitors.
  As the guilds grew rich and powerful, they built
  guildhalls and began taking an active role in
  civic affairs, setting up courts to settle
  disputes and punish wrongdoers.

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The Merchant Class

• The new merchant class included artisans, masons,
  armorers, bakers, shoemakers, ropemakers, dyers,
  and other skilled workers.
• Barber-Surgeon

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The First Companies

• The population of cities swelled for the first
  time since before the Dark Ages. With the new
  merchant activity, companies were formed.
  Merchants hired bookkeepers, scribes, and clerks,
  creating new jobs.

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The Printing Press

• Printing began in 1450 with the publication of
  the Bible by Johannes Gutenberg. This
  revolutionized the spread of learning. Other
  inventions of the time included mechanical
  clocks, tower mills, and guns.

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Urban Life

• Few serfs were left in Europe by the end of the
  Middle Ages, and the growing burgher class became
  very powerful. Hard work and enterprise led to
  economic prosperity and a new social order. Urban
  life brought with it a new freedom for
  individuals.